Reckoning with Climate, Defence, and Technological Upheaval, European Leaders Weigh in on the New Integrated Reality

Between climate disruptions, defence challenges, and technological upheavals, Europe is undergoing a period of immense transformation. Leaders across the continent are bracing for impact across a number of fronts and must contend with a great deal of uncertainty. In an era of profound geopolitical instability, it is not a surprise that "digital sovereignty" and “strategic autonomy” have emerged as a central theme in Europe's policy debates.

However, the collective drive for resilience and prosperity amid compounding disruptions requires a more joined-up approach to navigating a turbulent world. The realities we face today demand that Europe’s leaders integrate energy solutions, critical technologies, and defence innovation into coherent, cross-cutting policy in order to guarantee the block’s sovereignty.  

Against the backdrop of the Beyond GovTech conference in Copenhagen, StateUp spoke with policymakers from across the continent about tackling the intersecting imperatives we face today.‍

StateUp: There's a lot of upheaval happening right now in Europe and across the globe with respect to digital, climate and defence imperatives. How are you seeing this ‘triple transition’ play out and intersect in your context, and how do you balance those priorities?
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‍Lukas Savickas, Lithuanian MP and former Minister of Economy and Innovation: 

‍"I would say that Lithuania is really one of the countries who are really pioneering the way of connecting those things into one. At the moment, due to our geopolitical situation, we are now spending more than 5% of GDP on defence. So defence and investments in our defence industry is critical. 

We're looking at ways of how to create this new, fast-growing ecosystem, which is no longer just about Lithuania, but really about the regional defence ecosystem as such, which is evolving in front of our eyes [and] happening very quickly. It will be created in the next three to four years in Lithuania."

Nicoleta Columeet, Director of Moldova’s e-Government Agency:

"Moldova, first of all, is an underdog on the European scene. We're so advanced, yet we haven't really had the chance to shine and show everything that we've been up to and everything that we have. We currently sit at over 70% [of government] services [as] digital. We have the first version of the European digital identity wallet. We have an entire ecosystem of digital public services on platforms and a very robust interoperability network.‍

We have a green economy strategy that develops … the ‘green thread’ across all of our activities. We try to be mindful about sustainability on the governmental level. This is why we are digital first, and paper second, only in case there is a major need.

From a geopolitical perspective, we came under unprecedented threats and unprecedented attacks this year, especially during our election cycle, but also beyond. We're working towards strengthening our cyber resilience and cyber security at the governmental level, and also on strengthening our informational space."
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Michał Kobosko, Member of European Parliament from Poland: 

"We’re definitely living in very uncertain and shaky times. We had the pandemic, we are having war on the continent … and we have problems with our economy in Europe. 

What I believe the European Commission is doing right now is not turning its back [on climate], it's changing the trajectory a bit towards increasing the competitive edge of European companies. For many of them, this is about the competition. For many others, it's about the survival of industries. 

Working in the [European Parliament] Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, we do a lot of the green stuff still, but I would say we do much more on the competitive side of the European economy."
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‍‍Morten Friis Møller, Senior Advisor and Team Leader on Digital Governance Nordic Council of Ministers: 

"In a time where we see attacks on our infrastructure, we need to improve our protection of cyber security, and this is also damaging our seamless access to services. 

From my point of view, [...] the investment in the green transition and resilience go hand-in-hand. Investment in resilience is also investment in the transition. An example of that is when we are digitising our infrastructure, it's also a way of monitoring our utility infrastructure in order to make it more efficient. This is also, at the same time, a way to monitor and protect our infrastructure. At the moment, we see a lot of technologies invested in monitoring our critical infrastructure." 

Tony Shannon, Head of Digital Services, Government of Ireland: 

"We're in, at the moment, a European decade of green and digital. Digital is an enabler of better services to improve people's lives. That's a challenge, because we're coming from a base where there would still be silos of people [within] the triad of people, processes and technology. Services are more fragmented than they should be. They're not maybe as efficient as they could be. They're most likely not as resilient to threats as they could be. 

So there's work needed in all those areas, but I would say that the digital is the enabling piece. We really want to allow people to improve their own processes, to make for better services, but the tech tends to be the ingredient that accelerates all that."

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Note: answers lightly edited for clarity and length. 

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